Creekside Church Sermon of December 19, 1999 "Let It Be Unto Us According To Your Word" Luke 1:26-38	Rev. David Bibbee
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By now you know that I am not a fan of announcements in worship. If someone could devise an alternative to effectively promote important upcoming events outside of worship, I'd vote for it in a second. No more following a rousing, uplifting prelude with, "Next Saturday the Saints and Sinners Sunday School Class will hold their annual Heavenly Shine Car Wash and Hell's Fire Barbecue." Incorporating announcements into worship is like putting a square peg in a round hole. Annunciations, on the other hand, are of a different order. They contain messages from God.

Today we will reflect upon the greatest of all annunciations when Gabriel's great wings took him to the city of Nazareth, to the home of a peasant girl named Mary. Gabriel wasn't the only one who ever looked down upon this city. Nazareth was the bud of urban insults. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" they said. Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and the only one with whom she had ever been intimate was God, and it was from God that Gabriel came with a message.

Picture their meeting in your imagination. How would you react if an angel with a voice like thunder and face like lightening waltzed into your kitchen and hollered, "Hail, oh favored one!"? We might better grasp what the moment was like by listening to a story called "Mary's Surprise" from a book called, Jesus for Children. Gabriel has just spoken, and Mary responds:

"Stay where you are or I'll scream!" "My name is Gabriel," said the tall stranger. "Are you an angel?" Mary asked. "I have a message for you." "You shouldn't go around surprising people!" Mary complained. Gabriel responded, "Angels are for surprises." "I didn't know that," Mary said. "You are one of God's favorites," said Gabriel. "He wants you to know that." "Thank you for telling me." "He wants to ask you a favor. He wants you to be the mother of His child. The child the scriptures speak of. The child that will save all the people of the world. Will you do God this favor?" Gabriel asked. Mary replied, "Does He have to ask?" "God always asks," Gabriel said. And Mary replied, "He knows I read the scriptures, and I will do what he asks." "Blessed are you among women," Gabriel said, then he was gone. "Yes, God did have to ask," thought Mary, as she returned to her book, and yes, she would never say no.

Both the text itself and the slant of the story begs a question. "Did Mary have a choice?" On the surface it appears as though she didn't. Gabriel didn't say to her, "God has an idea for saving humanity and would like to run it by you and get your reaction." He didn't ask her to audition for the part. He didn't tell her to sleep on it. He didn't beg..."Won't you PLEASE bear the Savior of the world?" Gabriel's annunciation was to the point. "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son; and you shall call his name Jesus." The language makes it seem to us that Mary didn't have a say in the matter.

In his sermon two weeks ago, Pastor Eis mentioned the well-known painting by Holmin of Jesus knocking at the door. Dave pointed out that the door had no outside handle. The only way Jesus can enter is if the door is opened from the inside. This illustrates an important theological truth. When God has a plan which requires human participation, God asks for help. There are things God cannot, and will not do without our participation.

God will not compel us against our will. God will not barge into our lives. God has limited himself in such a way that there is one thing against which God is totally powerless-it's that little word "no". When it comes to recruiting, God knocks before God enters. The only way God will get in us is if we let Him in. Luke says nothing about this, but it's not hard for me to imagine Gabriel having visited other virgins before coming to Mary. I can hear them offering reasons why they couldn't have God's baby. "While don't you fly over to the Nelson's house on Olive Lane? They've been trying to have children for years."

Presumably God could have chosen someone else to mother the Messiah, but only one said yes. Until a yes was secured, God's plan would not go forward. Before Mary gave her consent, though, she had a question for Gabriel. "How can this be?" It didn't seem to her that Gabriel understood the mechanics of reproduction. As someone put it, "Some things have to happen first before other things can happen second." Maybe Gabriel was laughing at this point because with God, things needn't come first any more.

Ladies, if this had happened to you, what questions might you have asked? "What do I tell Joseph? What do I say to my family and friends? How will I deal with the rumors?" Even if Mary did ask these questions, I doubt if Gabriel would have had an answer.

Gabriel wasn't like the angels we hear so much about today. 1990's angels shield us from bad things and give us only good things. They promise protection and provide smooth sailing. They seldom challenge us to change or compel us to take risks for a larger good. They are more akin to Ed McMahon knocking at your front door with a check for a cool ten million from the Publisher's Clearing House than Gabriel saying, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you."

Only God knew what lay in store for Mary. All she knew for sure was that nothing would be predictable, safe, or easy again. Mary trusted God's word. She accepted the annunciation. She conceived Christ...first in her heart and then in her womb. "Let it be unto me according to your word," was the answer that Gabriel and all of heaven held their breath to hear.

Several days ago I bought some Christmas lights at Palmer's Hardware. I was the only customer in the store at the time. As I signed a credit card slip at the checkout counter, the clerk noticed my wedding band. "That's an interesting ring. What's on it?" "It's a fish." "What's the significance of that?" "It's an ancient symbol for Christ. It's to remind my wife and me that we will need Christ to pull this marriage off." "That's nice. I was married for 25 years." "Were married?" I said. "My husband died two years ago. He was an invalid for the last 10 years of his life. He was in a horrible automobile accident, and I had to do everything for him. It was such a drain on me that I had to get out. I had my bags packed and was heading for the door when my son stopped me."

"What about your promise, Mom?" "Promise?" "Don't you remember?" "...For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health tell death do you part." She said she didn't feel like staying, but she did. She said it didn't seem like a blessing at the time, but wouldn't have traded it for the world because she learned what love was all about the last two years of her husband's life.

Reflecting upon this conversation, I hear echoes of Mary. "Let it be unto me according to your word." Not, "Let it be unto me according to my wants." Not, "I can't handle this!" or "If you really want me to do this, you'll give me what I need." The decision to bring Jesus into the world was uniquely Mary's. But there is also a way to give birth to Christ which is uniquely ours. Whether or not you are sure about angels, we daily have the opportunity to bring Christ into our world. God wants to ask you a favor. There is an annunciation with your name on it. The choice cannot be, "Maybe, or maybe not." The choice is, "Yes or no. Will or won't."

My mentor in ministry, Paul Robinson, often said, "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." I have discovered the truth of this statement many times. Life finds us hard at work on the blueprint for our future that we have designed. But while we plan, God puts annunciations before us. Other paths opens up. We are called to do what we have never done. A voice prods us to do something and we don't know why. We're asked to serve, we are asked to do what is uncomfortable. We can say, "No," and God will let us. We can keep to ourselves. Life may be predictable and safe, but not nearly as interesting. We can choose not to listen to Gabriel, but as Barbara Brown Taylor says, "You may succeed, but you can rest assured that no angels will ever trouble you again."

There is an old story about a man who left the town of his birth and set out to find the city of his dreams where everything was perfect. At the end of his first day's journey, he laid down and spent the night in a forest. Before he went to sleep he took off his shoes and placed them in the path pointing in the direction of the dream city to which he was headed. But while he slept, a joker came by and pointed them in the direction of the town from which he came.

In the morning he woke, put on his shoes, and resumed his journey. He walked all day, and at dusk he saw the city of his dreams in the distance. It looked hauntingly familiar, and was much smaller than he had imagined. Entering the city, he found a street that looked exactly as his own. He knocked on the door of a house exactly like the one he had left, and was warmly received by the family inside, which was his family. And from then on he lived happily ever after in the city of his dreams.

Mary said yes, and bore a son named Jesus. Her testimony is our annunciation. In a spiritual way, we all are expecting. We all are with child. We all can give birth to Christ. We don't have to travel far to do it. Instead, we are pointed back to where we live...in the familiar places, with familiar people.

We are asked to bring Christ into the world through our lives. Like Mary, we may be deeply troubled. We may wonder, "How can it be?" But remember...with God, all things are possible. This Christmas let us pray, "Come abide within me; let my soul, like Mary, be thine earthly sanctuary." Let us, like her, in faith and trust respond, "Let it be unto us according to your word."

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